Nightmare System 13 Contacting Virgil

"She had been at it for half a day now, let's stay here and camp for the day," Leon said.

"Maybe I should go with her, ensure her safety," said Vaun.

"Why are you suddenly so concerned about her safety?" h.e.l.l said, flas.h.i.+ng a grin to Vaun. Seeing him frustrated, h.e.l.l giggled to himself.

"It's not like that! She Is just a young-"

"She can probably kick your a.s.s," Leon said. "Don't worry about it."

Vaun calmed down and began setting up something resembling a tent. It seemed like he made it similar to the houses of those tribesmen. It was great they didn't have to sleep under the rain, he was being useful in his own way.

"It's boring!" h.e.l.l yelled out into the jungle.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Leon said.

"We saw barely anything we could fight within the last few days. I want a good fight!"

"We literally fought another T-Rex yesterday."

"Yeah, but I didn't get to do anything proper," h.e.l.l said. "You basically finished him off with your Telekinesis."

Leon flashed a smile. "I am somewhat grateful to Player Killer. I didn't realize I was wasting the potential of such an amazing ability." He said as he used his ability to raise two swords, chopping off one of the trees into two in two moves."

"Look out! Look out!" Vaun said as they quickly got out of the way.

"Ah, well, I am not very clear on how to drop the tree where I want still." Leon sad apologetically.

"I was finally starting to relax, too!" h.e.l.l said as he made himself a bed by quickly gathering some leaves. It took the fraction of a second for him to gather enough leaves for the bed. He had also been using Quickening a lot in the last few days. It was impossible for his party members to follow him with their eyes while he was using that. He wasn't perhaps proficient with killing techniques, but he had learnt to use it consecutively without a stop, making him a boss of his own right. Of course, he didn't have neither the durability nor the strength of Player Killer. He couldn't use it the way he did. But still, as long as he could damage the enemy, he should be able to kill it.

"Oh, I have an idea!" yelled h.e.l.l.

"What?" Leon and Vaun both asked.

"What if we made your clothing full of pockets, broke the swords you carry to smaller pieces and then when you use your ability, you can hit the enemy with tens of swords!"

"Well, you see, even controlling two of these is proving to be quite difficult, albeit not wasting too much mana," Leon replied with a smile. "That would be amazing if it was possible for me."

"You gotta practice, man. Maybe you could make us all fly even!" That would be really cool.

"Ah!" Leon exclaimed.

"You can make us fly?" h.e.l.l was suddenly beaming.

"Not all of us, but maybe I can have Leila fly. She is small and weighs virtually nothing, coupled with her Undead's Vision, it should be exceedingly useful!"

"Make me float," h.e.l.l said with an expectant smile.

"What? Why should I make you float?"

"Come on, do it. Maybe I'll see Leila from the top, too."

"Among these dense trees? I mean location-wise, it could be useful at times. But here? I don't think you could see anything at all."

h.e.l.l took on a theatrical tone coupled with also a look as such on his face. "I thought we were brothers, comrades! Oh, how wrong I have been! How-"

"G.o.d, alright," Leon said, having had enough with his theatrics.

"You are such a good friend." h.e.l.l said again, in a nigh-sarcastic tone, trying to sound emotional." Leon used a portion of his immense mana pool to launch h.e.l.l into the evening sky. Unexpecting to be launched as such, he yelled, his voice drowned by the ma.s.sive jungle.

Not expecting h.e.l.l to be launched as fast, Leon looked up at the sky, the dot in the sky wasn't going to fall right back where they are. Leon, trusting his instincts, also launched himself close to h.e.l.l, suddenly getting scared that the fall would kill his friend. It would be a shame if he died as such indeed. As Leon was rising upwards, h.e.l.l fell past him downward. He caught him with his ability and stopped his fall mid-air.

"Hey there, Mate. I was gonna come and kick your a.s.s." h.e.l.l said, looking pale. It seems even psychopaths got scared once they were launched 100 meters into the air.

"Leon used his remaining mana to launch himself and h.e.l.l a few meters at a time, finally falling down to a patch of high trees, gazing upon the jungle.

"So… where are we?" h.e.l.l asked.

"We aren't probably far from Vaun," Leon commented in a hopeful tone.

"Hey, it's funny but I could probably just teleport to the ground without any harm to myself. You didn't actually have to exhaust yourself like this at all."

"Well, thanks, mate. I feel better already. That is quite funny."

"Thank you, I'll be here the whole week!" h.e.l.l acted as if bowing to an audience.

"Well, do you have perhaps any idea about how to find my sister and Vaun?"

"Oh yeah, I do," h.e.l.l said as he inhaled deeply.

"Wait, no-" Leon was saying as he h.e.l.l began yelling with all his might.

"Leila, Vaun, we are here! Come get us!" h.e.l.l yelled, followed by some wolf-like howls, as well as some roars added into the mix all the while, but h.e.l.l was not bothered in the least.

"Shut up, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d, shut up! Do you want everything that wants to kill us to find us at the same time?"

"Maybe," h.e.l.l answered, no longer yelling as they heard some footsteps below the tree. Looking down in excitement, h.e.l.l saw these distorted creatures with large fangs and pale, pinkish faces.

"I know what these are!" h.e.l.l said, looking at the horrified Leon. "These must be ghouls, the corpse eaters!"

Leon was unable to speak as he saw even more of these creatures coming here. There were around 30 below the tree as a rather different looking one spoke up.

"h.e.l.lo." It said in an eerie tone.

"h.e.l.lo there, mate. How are things?" h.e.l.l said as he jumped down the tree, the creatures making some s.p.a.ce for himself as he did so. Some of them started to laugh.

"Things are delicious!" One of the ghoul-like creatures yelled with a hoa.r.s.e voice and lunged at h.e.l.l. It, however, suddenly fell on the floor with a hole in its head. Other creatures, instead of attacking, was stupefied.

"What did you do?" The first one to have spoken said cautiously. She was the least disfigured of these creatures around her, as well as the only one with a straight back. The rest all had hunches.

"No harm will be done to this man." She yelled and motioned the other ghouls to stand back. She was a smart one, the best out of all these cursed creatures. She had realized by this man's relaxed demeanour that none of them was a match for himself. She was likely to be the only ghoul to have noticed the needle-like weapon that appeared on the man's hand, as well as the blood dripping from it. It meant that this man had clearly killed that ghoul in such timing that her eyes were unable to see how it happened. She had survived such troubles thanks to her intellect after being denied the chance to become a real vampire by fate, but she was getting there slowly, and wouldn't give up.

"Smart girl," h.e.l.l said as he came up to her and patted her head as he whispered to her ear. "Come on, you outnumber me, don't you think you can kill me? Don't you think I'm delicious?"

"No." The ghoul said.

"I'm surprised. Is your master also one of you creatures?"

"No." The she-ghoul said. "He is one of the leaders of the vampire nest. This region belongs to us."

"Why do you want me to meet your master?"

"You are an anomaly. My master loves new things."

"What happens if I kill your master?" h.e.l.l asked again.

"I'll be grateful."

"Oh?" h.e.l.l said, beaming a slight smile. He always liked people with such personality. "That man up there is also my friend, I'll a.s.sume your creatures won't attack him either?"

"They won't." She said. "No attacking to the man on the tree either. Go! Search for other prey!" She said as the creatures suddenly dispersed, running away in all directions.

h.e.l.l thought it was possibly fine, these creatures felt really weak.

"You can go down now, I scared them off!" h.e.l.l yelled to Leon, who was indubitably on his guard with his little mana pool. But it was better than spending the entire night on that tree.

"I see negotiations went well," Leon said.

"Yeah, it seems they like not being impaled in the head better. p.u.s.s.ies."

"I am a ghoul." The she-creature said. Her face seemed like it was burnt and her skin was pale white, differing from the other creatures who had more pinkish, bloated skin.

"Alright, ghoul lady. We have one or two friends lying around, can you find them for us? Since you are a native and all."

"Call me Theperes." She said. "What way did you come from?"

"That way." Leon and h.e.l.l said, pointing to the opposite directions at the same time.

Theperes looked disgruntled. "Do you know of any specific location that may help me distinguish their whereabouts?"

"Well, we took a right from the green-skinned tribe's entrance and continued for half a day," h.e.l.l said. "I think we mostly continued straight without changing our direction by much."

Theperes pointed at the place h.e.l.l pointed toward. "We will search that way."

"See, I was right," h.e.l.l said to Leon.

"Did you actually know it was that way?" He asked, surprised.

"I had a hunch."

They continued for half an hour when Leon and h.e.l.l both sensed their friends. "I feel them!" h.e.l.l exclaimed. "That way." It was the party member buff the system had granted to them when they first created the party. h.e.l.l was using Quickening to run with his utmost speed. His current speed even beat the distance that could be achieved with his teleport. What was great about Quickening was that it considered a whole second as one action for the player. It was, however, only one movement for Rapid Move. "I guess it's kind of in the name." h.e.l.l murmured as he soon found Vaun slightly bleeding in his arms, but still holding on nonetheless against some ghouls. h.e.l.l dispatched them in mere moments, and before Vaun could understand what's going on, h.e.l.l held Vaun's shoulder and turned him to the way he came from.

"Go there." He said and rushed toward Leila this time. She was close by also. Vaun was surprised and didn't even understand how those ghouls just fell down limp on the floor, but he recognized the voice and started running the way he was pointed to. He didn't have a skill he could utilize to such an extent as the others, so being a meat s.h.i.+eld was all he could do for now.

h.e.l.l found also Leila moments later. She had started running toward him as she felt another teammate's whereabouts closing up on her. She sure as h.e.l.l needed help. h.e.l.l was shocked when he saw Leila full of claw wounds and a blade sticking out her side with multiple humanoids following her with crazed looks, looking to be enjoying themselves. There seemed to be 6 of them.

Leila saw h.e.l.l and collapsed on him. She had lost more than 2 litres of blood already. It was a miracle not only she could keep running, but she also went about doing that in her utmost speed. She felt relaxed when she saw h.e.l.l as the relaxation led to her adrenaline-run body to lose consciousness.

One of the humanoids giggled and said: "What is this? Will this man protect our toy, now? Did she die in your arms?" The man continued walking toward h.e.l.l who looked silent, he was trying to keep his temper in check. "We are the vampires of Virgil The Inventor, heard about him? You dare stand before us?"

"You did great," h.e.l.l whispered as she laid her down on the floor, using Quickening to attack the vampires. The vampire close to h.e.l.l couldn't even see what happened as his brain was penetrated. They all fell down one after another, following the first one, but to h.e.l.l's dismay, they were squirming on the floor, in immense pain.

"So like the vampires from our fiction stories and movies? I wonder if I'll need a stake to off you parasites." The vampires were in incredible pain as they couldn't think or act properly, having a hole in their brain. It was recovering in speed. h.e.l.l used his speed to cut off their limbs to see if they'd also recover. After a few seconds and they were only screaming torsos. It didn't seem they could recover limbs. h.e.l.l saw that however, he could reattach the limbs and they'd immediately connect. He kept their limbs separated and after a minute or so, 10 more vampires came, 9 of them ended up in the same way as they were horrified to see what had happened to their friends. 1 escaped death as h.e.l.l was merciful enough to use him to send a message. h.e.l.l couldn't risk leaving Leila at this point to hunt more of them down, even if there were more.

"Tell your boss that he will come here to apologize. I'll give him one day, or I'll go to him myself."

The vampire was shocked. They could barely see his movements, it didn't seem the weapon he used was even sharp on the edges, but he used it to chop off their limbs. He scurried away with all his might. They were the predators here. He wanted to deny that there could be something they would have to be scared of.

Along with the helpful screaming of vampires, she-ghoul, Leon and Vaun had arrived here. Leon rushed at his sister's side in fervour. "What happened?!" He yelled in anger.

"We need to treat her," h.e.l.l said.

"Why didn't you protect her better?! Is that all you amount to as a teammate?!" Leon yelled further. He used one of his swords as it seemed to be launched toward h.e.l.l, who didn't flinch, being able to tell it wasn't aimed at him. It split open the head of a ghoul that had come here following the smell of blood as well as the screams.

Theperes went up to the screaming vampires, dug one's heart out and went up to Leila. "This'll save her," she said to the Leon who was already grieving seeing how deep some of her wounds were. The blood was oozing at an incredible speed and she was becoming colder by the second. "That is, if you are willing."

Theperes saw the floating swords fall down as Leon let her do what she could. She squeezed the heart and the blood was poured inside Leila's mouth. She suddenly opened her eyes as they went black with white branches spreading inside her eye. She seemed to be in pain at the level that she looked like she wanted to scream, but couldn't.

"What did you do?!" Leon exclaimed as he gripped Theperes' throat by using some of his HP for the sundering attack. The result was that she was lifted into the air as if she was a toy. h.e.l.l watched the events unfolding, he hoped for the best.

"She needs blood from a living creature," Theperes said.

"Why?" h.e.l.l said, fearing for what she'd say.

"She's turning into a vampire," Theperes answered. "One of you should spare some blood."

"Did you turn her into a monster, you wh.o.r.e?!" Leon yelled into her face, slowly crus.h.i.+ng throat with his death grip. "Reverse it!"

"It was. The. Only Way," Theperes could barely get the words out. Seeing the amount of blood lost by the girl, Theperes surmised that unless someone could supply matching blood to her immediately in large amounts, it wouldn't be possible to save her.

"I'm thirsty." Leila's faint voice was suddenly heard.